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Sacha wrote:
On 12/12/04 17:41, in article , "Mike Lyle" wrote: Jaques d'Alltrades wrote: The message from contains these words: /quicklime/ It was used in plague pits. Not very recently, I would venture to suggest. In 'official circles' the myth that it had a caustic action on bodies lasted well into the last century. O. Wilde, _The Ballad of Reading Gaol_ "We could tell the work they had been at / By the quicklime on their boots." I wonder, though, if the plague pit theory wasn't in fact quite a good one: the stuff is, after all, caustic, and by reacting with soil moisture and to some extent with exposed parts of the bodies might have provided a sort of cordon sanitaire. Wasn't there some association with the use of lime and an infamous murderer - Crippen, perhaps? Years ago, I remember reading a Dornford Yates novel in which a murderer used slaked lime instead of quicklime and thus preserved the body he had hoped to destroy, which was buried in a pit in a barn, IIRC. I think. ;-) Good Heavens above! Somebody as young as you who's read Dornford Yates! I ought to rush round and do a piece for the Sunday Telegraph! (I don't know when I last used so many exclamation marks in a single month.) Mike. |
#3
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On 12/12/04 22:37, in article , "Mike Lyle"
wrote: Sacha wrote: snip Wasn't there some association with the use of lime and an infamous murderer - Crippen, perhaps? Years ago, I remember reading a Dornford Yates novel in which a murderer used slaked lime instead of quicklime and thus preserved the body he had hoped to destroy, which was buried in a pit in a barn, IIRC. I think. ;-) Good Heavens above! Somebody as young as you who's read Dornford Yates! I ought to rush round and do a piece for the Sunday Telegraph! As *young* as me?! I'm very flattered, Mike but on 11 January, I shall be 59! And besides, my mother had the entire collection at one time and I read the lot and now have some of my own. Berry & Co. is still one of the funniest books I've ever known. snip -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.co.uk South Devon (remove the weeds to email me) |
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